Two months in solitary confinement. The offense? Working an extra shift in the prison cafeteria. And the prisoner said she had permission to cover the shift. The Chicago Reporter, the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and NPR investigated disciplinary actions in Illinois state prisons and found that women are disciplined at higher rates than men, despite the fact that men are more violent. Women prisoners are often cited for subjective, minor behaviors that aren’t a safety threat to prisoners and prison staff — like playing Scrabble solo. Over-punishment can be a triggering event for women inmates, many of whom are abuse victims, exacerbating the trauma and delaying rehabilitation.

You know the old saying, “Teach someone to fish, and they’ll eat for a lifetime.” Well, here’s your chance to eat on the cheap in Philadelphia: storm grate fishing! Stephanie Farr of the Philadelphia Inquirer has the fun story of the professional angler who uses local delicacies like hot dogs & soft pretzels to catch fish under city streets.

The recently launched Colorado Sun reports on the inside story of how Purdue Pharma, the maker of Oxyontin, implemented sales tactics leading to hundreds of opioid deaths in Colorado. The story is from recently unsealed court documents filed by the state Attorney General’s office, and details how Purdue Pharma sales representatives pushed for higher dosages of Oxycontin to patients. In 2017, 516 people died of opioid overdoses in Colorado.

A community of 200 homeless people near Honolulu announced a plan to raise money to lease or buy land to build their own self-made community. Honolulu Civil Beat reporter Natanya Friedheim shares some of the details of the “herculean effort” of raising the money to build a group of houses with communal areas to house the homeless. In 2015, Honolulu Civil Beat produced The Harbor, a 5-part series on the Waianae homeless camp.

Texas has one of the lowest voter turnout rates in the country. Erica Mansfield reports on efforts to get more people registered to vote in Smith County, Texas. Despite seemingly disparate political views, Mansfield interviews Republicans, Democrats, nonpartisan groups and even a shoe store owner volunteer in service to the same goal: get more people voting on election day.

On average, 12 people per day are evicted in the Austin, Texas metro area. That’s three times the national average. KUT Austin’s Audrey McGlinchy digs into eviction data and shares the stories of people struggling for housing in a city often lauded for its economic success.